We’re having a seated and served dinner. I am debating about whether or not we should select one entree for our guests at the reception or if we should give them a choice between 2-3 different options. The benefit to choosing for the guests: it’s easier for the caterer, no confusion from the guests who might change their minds or forget their selection (and want to change their mind), we can keep our cost at budget. Of course the benefit to letting guests choose is they will be happy with their food instead of being stuck with our choice for them! What do you bees plan to do or what did you do for your dinner (if you had a seated and served) OR what would you prefer? Would you be okay with the host choosing your meal for you? If we do choose the meal it will definitely be chicken. For those people that did give guests options, was the extra effort worth it?

We did dual entree with filet mignon and parmesan crusted chicken. Although some guests may have prefered a full filet or just chicken, they could have traded with their date or neighbor. While giving guests options is very nice, the ease of doing it will probably depend on how many guests you have and how flexible your caterer is.

We did two entrees on one plate. We had herb crusted salmon over cheese grits and a steak filet. The portions were very large. I think everyone was happy to have both. The pescatarians got just the fish and the one vegetarian got adult mac and cheese (she wanted it!).

We paid extra to give our guests 3 options (beef, chicken, vegetable risotto), and, while it was nice, it was not worth the extra cost. We actually had a hard time getting people to make their meal choices, so we ended up just choosing for most people anyway. Oh well!

I do think it’s nice to offer a meat option and a vegetarian option if you can, but beyond that, it didn’t seem worth it to me.

Well, if I was a guest and you chose my meal for me, there is a good chance I would not be able to eat it, and end up leaving early because I couldn’t eat. There are some things I just cannot eat. I would try to eat least give your guests 2 options if it’s possible.

As a guest, I prefer to have an option. There are some foods that I just don’t like and refuse to eat so if that was what was served to me, I probably wouldn’t be too thrilled. We’re having a sit down dinner and offering our guests 3 options (steak, chicken cordon blue or pasta primavera).

ETA: we had fish because some of our guests keep kosher–they’d eat vegetarian but would prefer fish, and won’t eat poultry or red meat out of a non-kosher kitchen. otherwise we probably would have had chicken.

We gave our guests three options (beef, seabass or vegetarian). i definitely think it was worth the extra cost as everyone was really happy with their meal and liked the option of getting to choose. they found it thoughtful as its not common in either of our families.

i do have to say that most weddings i’ve been to have not had choice. majority of them are either one entree or a duo entree. most of the duo entrees i haven’t been able to finish since its just too much food.

@Ms. Purple did you have the same experience as stillme, meaning, was it difficult to get meal choices from your guests? Did you end up having to pick for many of your guests? If we have to do that, it sort of misses the point of giving them options, if they opt out of choosing (does that make sense). I’ve heard it’s difficult to get a lot of your RSVPs back so I could only imagine that it would be even more difficult to get RSVPs and worry about entree selection.

We gave guests three choices: beef, fish, and vegan. We asked on their reply cards and did not have a problem hearing from guests. As a guest, I prefer to have a choice–especially since I often prefer to eat the vegetarian meal, even though I am not actually a vegetarian. That means that at weddings that serve everyone one meat meal but ask people to come to them with special dietary requests, I miss out on eating what may be a tastier veggie meal because I CAN still eat the meat meal (but just prefer the veggie meal).

Our venue REALLY wanted to do one option, but we are giving people the option of steak or salmon (our vegetarians all eat fish, which I don’t totally understand but it makes it easier). The kids get chicken fingers, but I’m not making that an adult option.

We compromised with our venue by NOT givng guests the option of two different salads.